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Habasit goes to Hollywood

If you think conveyor belts have nothing to do with action, adventure, and ridiculously good looking people, then think again. The much anticipated sequel, Zoolander 2, was filled with a surprising number of cameos, from Sting, to Willy Nelson, Kim Kardashian, Justin Bieber, Tommy Hilfiger and Habasit – although the latter, despite a moving performance, was likely to be missed.

Set ten years after the original film, Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller) and Hansel (Owen Wilson), two proud male models now past their prime, are reunited at the edge of a conveyor belt when they reach for the same piece of revolving luggage on the airport carousel. This momentous encounter sets the story in motion as the duo becomes entangled in stopping the assassination of the world’s most beautiful people.

Shortly after the models’ reunion, Habasit’s own fabric belt is featured as Zoolander and Hansel stand silent and self-consciously still on a moving walkway. Being carried back into the modeling world they thought they left behind, they must rely on each other and their good looks to get them through.

“It all started the first time I went through the second grade,” Zoolander explained in the original movie. “I caught my reflection in a spoon while I was eating my cereal,” and I remember thinking "Wow, you're ridiculously good looking, maybe you could do that for a career."

“Do what for a career?” he is asked. “Be professionally good looking.”

Hansel and Derek Zoolander, determined to revive their dead careers, arrive to a fashion scene that has moved on without them. “They say she doesn’t walk, she floats,” Hansel whispers in awe as they watch a model dressed in a ballooning purple gown glide seamlessly across the floor. Featured as the prominent runway, Habasit belts appear again as the platform for all the action as Zoolander tries to resurrect the look that once changed the world.

The conveyor belts were supplied by Habasit Italiana via the distributor Esabelt for the elaborate film set built in Rome. In fact, it’s not our belts’ first Hollywood appearance. In 2012, our product gave a star performance in The Amazing Spider-Man. The scene was set in the lab of a spider nursery where the belts were conveying venomous green vials.

Although there has yet to be talk of an Oscar for Habasit’s recent riveting role, it seems clear that Zoolander 2 wouldn’t have been the same without the feature appearance. Whether carrying poison or just really, really – really good looking people, you can expect to find Habasit moving the plot forward where it matters most. (ST)